PERFECT FIT: SEE the first couple to BOTH win world bodybuilding championship honours at same event (PHOTOS)

May 22, 2013

Engaged couples are usually so neck-deep in wedding invitations, seating plans and bridesmaid dresses that they find it difficult to make time for hobbies they already have, let alone new ones.

But then you can tell simply by looking at them that Don Akim, 43, and Rosanna Beckett, 33, from Loewstoft, Suffolk, are no ordinary couple.

Just four months ago, the betrothed pair began bodybuilding together, and they are now celebrating becoming the first ever couple to both win world championship honours at the same event, having picked up three trophies between them at the Miami Pro World Champions held in St Albans – beating more than 200 athletes to the awards.

Your love lifts me up: Don Akim, 43, and Rosanna Beckett, 33, from Loewstoft, Suffolk, picked up three trophies between them at the Miami Pro World Champions held in St Albans

Ship worker Don said: ‘The judges didn’t even realise we were a couple – when we told them they were like “wow”‘

In the four months leading up to the world champions, the duo spent 14 hours a week in their local gym.

Ship worker Don said: ‘The judges didn’t even realise we were a couple – when we told them they were like “wow”.

‘Rosanna went up first and I was over the moon when she won. I had to wait a nerve-racking few minutes before I was chosen, but I was thrilled.’

The couple met in a night club in Norwich eight years ago and hit it off straight away. They always had an interest in keeping fit and going to the gym, and progressed into bodybuilding at the start of this year.

Carrying his future bride over the threshold: Don practices weight-lifting in the living room… using his fiance Rosanna

Mr and Mrs Motivator: The couple, who met in a nightclub in Norwich eight years ago, have always had an interest in keep fit, but only began seriously body-building at the start of the year

Dancer and mother-of-one Rosanna said: ‘I found the competition on the internet – I think I was looking for a new bikini body diet.

Rosanna said: ‘It’s always at the back of my mind that my body won’t last forever so I want to make the most of it now’

‘I saw the contestants and thought ‘I want to look like that’, so I signed up to the competition.

‘I signed Don up as well and told him he was doing it – he didn’t seem to mind, especially when he won.’

Don won his two trophies for male Muscle Model class A category and the male Fitness Model over-40’s category. Rosanna took home the prize for Ms Bikini tall class B category.

PThe couple that works out together, stays together? In the run-up to the competition, Don and Rosanna spent 14 hours in the gym every week

Doesn’t everyone drink tea in a bikini? Rosanna and Don say if they argue they go to the gym and when they come home they feel better

Don and Rosanna now have plans to enter other competitions, starting with the East Anglian Bodybuilding Championships in two weeks time.

They are then going to a World Bodybuilding & Fitness Federation event in London in November.

Rosanna said: ‘We’re already there, it’s just a matter of maintaining it now. It’s always at the back of my mind that my body won’t last forever so I want to make the most of it now.’

PIC FROM CATERS NEWS – (PICTURED:Don and Rosanna at home) – Meet the real life Mr and Mrs Muscle: bodybuilder couple become the first to win world championship honours at the same event. Don Akim, 43, and Rosanna Beckett, 33, from Loewstoft, Suffolk, picked up three trophies between them at the Miami Pro Home is where the stone Egyptian cat statue is: Don and Rosanna say a trip to the gym can resolve any tiff between them

A quick refreshment before hitting the gym: The couple don’t usually visit the gym at the same time, since someone needs to be home with their daughter Carmen

The couple get a buzz from the exercise they do at Nirvana Fitness Gym and although they are competitive, they find they are more supportive of each other.

Going to the gym is a stress relief and it helps our relationship. If we have an argument we can go to the gym and come home feeling better’

Don said: ‘Going to the gym is a stress relief and it helps our relationship. If we have an argument we can go to the gym and come home feeling better.

‘We don’t go together because usually someone has to be at home with our little girl Carmen.’

But it isn’t always easy being one half of a competitive bodybuilding couple.

Rosanna said: ‘When I found out I had won at the contest I had to control my celebrations because Don was still waiting. I wouldn’t have wanted one of us to win and not the other. It would be no fun for the other one.’

The East Anglian Bodybuilding Championship takes place on 3 June 2013.

Rosanna said: ‘It’s always at the back of my mind that my body won’t last forever so I want to make the most of it now’

Rosanna said: ‘When I found out I had won at the contest I had to control my celebrations because Don was still waiting – I wouldn’t have wanted one of us to win and not the other’

His’n’hers muscles: The couple get a buzz from the exercise they do at Nirvana Fitness Gym, and although they are competitive they find they are more supportive of each other

Relaxing at home: Dancer and mother-of-one Rosanna said she found the competition on the internet when she was looking for a new bikini body diet

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